petersaville.net

In a recent article in a local paper on the NSW Mid North Coast an internet user was calling for people in the Port Macquarie subdivision of “The Promenade” to register their interest for broadband internet.

A quick phone call to your ISP and they will register your internet if Telstra’s ADSL register, you don’t have to contact Telstra directly. However reading the article you would get the distinct impression that was the case.

The ADSL Demand Register (ADR) was developed by Telstra to allow them to provide ADSL service to communities that put their hand up so to speak. As the ADSL equipment costs large amounts of money Telstra need to make sure they have the customers to support the service and make it viable. The ADSL register enables Telstra to work with its participating Telstra Wholesale Customers, Telstra Retail and Telstra Countrywide end users to capture and meet their needs for ADSL.

When the users register Telstra then compile this data and work out with the number of end users will support such a service in that area and then make plans to enable the exchange. This data collected by the register allows Telstra to speculate on future demand and install the appropriate level of future capacity into the exchange.

However, there are some areas that just cannot get ADSL, this is a fairly old technology and has been around for around 15 years or so. It relies on older style copper wire networks of cables rather than fibre optic cables. Copper wire supports electromagnetic, electrical or radio frequency signals running along it and thus can provide both ADSL and PSTN services on the one line. Fibre works by sending digital impulse of light and means it does not support electricity or radio frequency signals. However, fibre is capable of supporting speeds in the thousands of megabits per second. Fibre can provide quite a good internet connection. So why doesn’t the phone company run fibre into the houses directly? It comes down to cost unfortunately, firbe is costly so they break out of the fibre using a RIM (remote infrastructure multiplexer), which is like a small exchange.

In the case of “The Promenade” in Port Macquarie Telstra has said if they get enough interest they may find ways of installing ADSL into that area. A “Mini-mux” is one way which is installed into the RIM and provides ADSL. But depending on the type of RIM used in the subdivision this can be unsuccessful. Even though the article says Telstra may rewire the subdivision with copper I would doubt it, as this would be cost prohibitive. Looks like these guys may be on dial up for a while yet!